


The Jaune-Shots

by Redhazard



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-11
Updated: 2018-11-06
Packaged: 2019-07-11 03:29:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15963752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Redhazard/pseuds/Redhazard
Summary: Hero, Dork, and everything in between. A collection of one-shots and snippets featuring Jaune Arc.





	1. The Decisive Slice

xXx

The Decisive Slice

xXx

A battle between Jaune Arc and Cinder Fall could only end one way.

Certainly, Jaune Arc had improved since entering Beacon. Under the tutelage of Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune had gone from a bumbling fool with a sword to the level one would expect from a lower-than-average first year Beacon student. His skill had only been further refined during the journey to Mistral. It was, when one stopped to think about it, an insane rate of growth. Many people trained for years to prepare themselves for Beacon, yet most didn't make it past the initiation.

This, of course, had never occurred to Jaune. His companions were too dazzling, even by the standards of Beacon, for him to notice how impressive he was becoming.

Before Cinder Fall, none of that mattered.

Cinder Fall was a master of hand-to-hand and armed combat. She had full control of her Semblance and profound knowledge of Dust. Even without the powers of the Fall Maiden, Cinder was easily on the level of the strongest Hunters Remnant had to offer. With the powers of the Fall Maiden, which she had spent months mastering, she became a force of nature, something beyond the reach of mere mortals. Then there was her Grimm arm, a gift from Salem that allowed her to drain the very Aura that gave Hunters their strength. A final layer overkill.

Before Ruby Rose's Silver Eyes, all that mattered little.

It happened in an instant. Fear of losing yet another friend triggered Ruby Rose's power, bathing everything in her sight in silver light. Unfortunately, it also left her defenseless, and Emerald Sustrai did not miss her chance. Ruby fell, and the light vanished. The damage, however, was done.

Cinder Fall fell to her knees.

At that moment, Cinder Fall was neither strong nor fast. Her aura was down, her body in pain, her head confused. She was not some exalted existence. Cinder Fall was just a wounded woman and nothing more.

At that moment, Jaune Arc saw his chance. His sword sliced through the air, and it did not miss.

Cinder Fall, slayer of Ozpin, Fall Maiden, the mastermind behind the fall of Beacon, one of the most powerful beings in Remnant, fell to the blade of Jaune Arc. A single strike cut through her neck and separated her head from her body.

For a moment, there was silence. Sheer shock paralyzed the room as everyone turned to look at the blond's bloody blade and the headless body before him to confirm that, yes, that had really just happened. No one was more shocked than Jaune who stared at Cinder's corpse as if unable to believe his eyes.

In that situation, the first one to act was not Jaune who was too shocked. It wasn't Ruby who was too unconscious. It was not Ren or Nora or Yang or Weiss or Qrow.

It was Emerald.

Shock and disbelief played across her face for an instant before giving way to grief and rage. Another emotion soon took their place, burning through Emerald's body like fire, blinding her to everything but the sight in front of her, overwhelming her every rational thought with its intensity.

Hate.

Emerald hurled herself at Cinder's murderer, blades raised high. She could have shot him but didn't. She could have used her Semblance but didn't. At that moment, Emerald was not thinking. She just knew she needed to make contact, needed to feel as her blades tore him apart.

Jaune barely had time to raise his shield.

Emerald's blades clanged against his shield again and again. Emerald didn't try to use her superior speed and agility to get behind him. She didn't try to hook one of her blades on his shield to wrest it away from him. She just hit and hit and kept hitting with strength and speed borne of rage.

She never saw the attack coming.

First, the hilt of a sword struck the back of her neck with great force. It was not out of kindness or mercy that the blade was not used. With Emerald's Aura still up, blunt force had its own merits. The blow stunned Emerald, stopping her attack on Jaune and leaving her wide open. Her legs were kicked out from under her. A knee pressed against her back. A hand took hold of her wrist, pulling it back, twisting her arm.

Something cracked.

An instant later, Emerald's body was hurled into a wall. The pain in addition to the jumbled mess of emotions in her mind caused her to lose control of her Aura for a moment, just in time for the impact. The girl fell into a crumpled heap and did not get up.

Satisfied at having incapacitated Cinder's little illusionist, Raven Branwen allowed a smirk to appear on her face.

When Cinder Fall had marched into her camp, Raven had known the odds. After so long, Salem had finally acquired a Maiden. Fighting Cinder would force Raven to reveal herself as the Spring Maiden. Disgraced Watts may be, but there was no denying the man was capable. In the best-case scenario, Raven would defeat Cinder, the fight would attract Grimm to the camp, and Watts would get away. Salem would know the truth before the end of the day.

Raven couldn't have that happen.

So Raven had played along. She had goaded Cinder into confronting her brother, trusting Qrow's Semblance to work in her favor like it had so many other times in the past.

Still, Raven had been worried for a moment. Qrow had brought nothing but children with him. What they had in numbers, they lacked in power and experience. They dragged Hazel into the fight when they had no need to, engaged Leo even though the man would have hidden in a corner if left alone, and let the blond attack a Maiden on his own.

Raven compared them to Team STRQ and found them wanting.

Still, Summer's eyes had come through in the end, and the boy had not hesitated. He took his shot and ended a Maiden's life, a feat only a select few had managed through the ages. Just like that, the situation radically changed.

Salem had a Maiden no longer.

As strong as Salem was, the monster had not left her territory in ages. Raven doubted she would start now. Without her Maiden, Raven and her secret were safe once more. There was no need to escalate things by taking the Relic. Certainly, Salem would send some of her forces after Vernal, but Raven had experience keeping herself out of Salem's interest. She had done so for eighteen years after all.

And if Raven killed all the pawns Salem had sent to this place right now, she would save herself a lot of trouble in the future.

Raven spared Jaune a glance. She had been there, disguised in raven form, when he had lost his temper with her brother, angry at Ozpin's machinations. Back then and just a minute ago, his eyes had been full of anger. Now, his eyes were lost, unfocused. He had gotten his revenge, but reality had not sunk in yet. No matter.

"Vernal," she called out. "Change of plans!"

Vernal gave her the briefest of nods before she abandoned her fight with the Schnee in favor of striking at an unprepared Mercury while Raven turned her blade on Haven's diminished Headmaster.

It was a predictably short fight.

xXx

The Battle of Haven had come and gone. The people of Mistral would never realize just how close they had come to losing their Hunter Academy. Tomorrow, they would see the news. They would learn the White Fang had attacked Haven. They would learn the headmaster, Leonardo Lionheart, had bravely fought off the invaders but died in the struggle.

Well, that was the official story.

Of course, none of that mattered to Jaune right now. The young Arc was training in a clearing close to the house they were staying at. Most had already gone to sleep. Jaune knew he should follow their example. Many things had happened, and the morning would help him deal with them. However, sleep eluded him. Sheer restlessness compelled him to move, compelled him to go through the forms Pyrrha had taught him. Jaune swung his sword again and again with more force than was required.

The White Fang had been stopped from blowing up Haven. Blake had shown up with her family and Sun in tow. Jaune had no idea how on Remnant had the authorities of Mistral allowed an armed group of faunus bearing the symbol of the White Fang into their borders, let alone listened to them about the threat, but that was what happened. With Blake back, Team RWBY was once again whole.

Jaune was happy for them.

Hazel had escaped. The impossibly tough man with seemingly inexhaustible Aura had shrugged off their best efforts before taking Emerald and Mercury and fleeing into the night.

Cinder Fall was dead.

A scream left Jaune's mouth as he swung his sword down. He stopped. The force behind the blow carried through, blowing away dirt and nearby leaves. A sheen of sweat covered Jaune's body. His breath came out in small pants. He was tired, but not from swinging his sword, not from fighting Cinder. He just felt old. It was as if years had passed since the night began, and he had stayed awake for it all.

He had done it.

The simple fact kept echoing in his mind. He, Jaune Arc, had avenged Pyrrha. He had killed the monster who murdered her, who took away the first person to believe in him. Why then did he feel so…

"You should not be out alone so late at night. Who knows what dangers lurk out there?"

Jaune raised his sword as Raven Branwen stepped out of the darkness.

"If I wanted to hurt you, you would already be hurt," the woman said, an amused smirk tugging at her lips.

"What are you doing here?" Jaune asked, his sword still up.

"I just finished discussing some things with my idiot brother and Ozpin."

Jaune frowned. That was another thing that had happened. After the fight was over, Raven and Vernal had come back with them, presumably to discuss some things. Naturally, Ozpin told them all to get some rest which gave him and Qrow the opportunity to discuss things with Raven behind closed doors. Ozpin was good at sending people away without them realizing he was doing it.

"Do you perhaps want to know what Ozpin wanted?" Raven taunted.

"No," Jaune lied. He did want to know, but not from her. He did not know much about Raven, but what he did know did not paint the most trustworthy picture.

"How does it feel?" Raven suddenly asked, surprising Jaune.

"How does what feel?" Jaune asked, confused.

"You killed a Maiden," Raven said, slowly circling around Jaune. Jaune moved so as to not show his back to her. "In the past, people who killed Maidens were hailed as great heroes or great villains. Which one do you feel like right now, I wonder?"

"Neither," Jaune replied.

"Really?" Raven challenged. "You seemed to hate Cinder Fall quite a bit before the fight started. Are you not even a little proud of yourself right now?"

Jaune swallowed. Proud? Maybe. Perhaps, there was a part of him that did feel like that. Most of him, however, did not have that problem.

"I just got lucky," Jaune said, and he knew it was the truth. "I…I acted like an idiot. No, I was an idiot."

Because he had lost it back there. He had lost control of his emotions and allowed himself to be goaded into a fight he should have lost. He could have died.

They all could have died.

"You did. You were." Raven did not disagree. "Yet your strength saw you through that fight."

Jaune barked a laugh. "Strength? Cinder toyed with me from the start! I… I thought about it so much," he said, his voice suddenly tight. "I thought it would be different. I thought I was making a difference. I trained so much. I tried so hard. I thought I could be a hero. I still did, you know? In the end, I am only alive because I was nothing more than a joke to her! How is that strength?"

"Cinder could have killed you at any moment yet chose to toy with you instead. That was her weakness," Raven scoffed. Battle was no place for sadism. Only a fool would price it above efficiency. "Cinder's weakness allowed an opening to appear. When it did, you did not hesitate. You killed her. That is your strength."

Jaune took a step back.

"That's… that's messed up."

"That is how the world works. The strong survive. The weak die. For all her power, Cinder proved herself to be weak. You did not." Her words were cold and callous, yet Jaune felt it was the truest praise he had ever received.

How many times had Pyrrha told him he was improving? How many times had his friends told him he was doing well? Why then was Raven's praise the one which resonated more with him?

Maybe he was messed up too.

"Whatever." Jaune looked away. "If you're done with your thing with Ozpin, then you should just leave already."

"Oh, I don't think I will." Jaune backed away as Raven drew her sword.

"What are you doing?"

"Much like you, I don't feel like sleeping," Raven said. Her red eyes shone a bit too much for his liking. "Perhaps, a spar will do me some good?"

"I am nowhere near dumb enough to agree to that," Jaune said, taking more steps back. Raven stepped forward.

"And here I thought you wanted to improve," Raven said. The smile on her face was entirely too smug for Jaune's liking. "In front of you stands the strongest fighter in Remnant. Just one spar with me would teach you much. You can take the opportunity to grow stronger… or you can go running to Qrow and Ozpin and trust them to protect you next time you run into danger. After all, they are so very good at that."

This was stupid, Jaune told himself. This was so very stupid.

"Alright." He raised his shield and aimed his sword at Raven. "Let's do it."

Raven smiled.

xXx

**AN: Weirdly enough, I don't think I have seen a single fic use the idea of Jaune managing to kill Cinder during the Battle of Haven. It seems like such an obvious What if. The guy was literally inches away from it. Then again, perhaps that's telling in its own way. Who knows?**

**The idea here is Jaune kills Cinder, and Raven is suddenly not feeling a lot of pressure. She is free to pursue other interests like stealing, raiding and increasing the membership of the We Hate Ozpin club, the most exclusive club on Remnant.**


	2. Invincible

 

* * *

**Invincible**

* * *

The fall of Beacon had arrived.

Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc's lips met for the first and last time. In a few seconds, Pyrrha would push Jaune into a locker and send him away. She would go face Cinder, and she would die.

It was a natural outcome. Amazing as Pyrrha Nikos may be, she was no match for a Cinder Fall who had obtained the powers of the Fall Maiden. If Pyrrha were a more practically-minded person, she would realize the futility of her actions. She could not hope to prevail where Ozpin fell. She should retreat and try to find some help. She should hope for someone stronger than her to arrive.

However, if she did, she wouldn't be Pyrrha Nikos.

The CCT Tower couldn't be allowed to fall. If it did, the world would be plunged into darkness. Unable to communicate, fear would be fostered. Doubt and suspicion would grow. Negativity would rise. In such an environment, the Grimm would feast.

So Pyrrha chose to go into the tower, no matter how minuscule the odds.

So Pyrrha chose to push Jaune away.

She could not ask him to come with her, not when deep down she knew it was a doomed effort, not when deep down she knew he was nowhere near strong enough for the challenge. Pyrrha had taught Jaune for nearly a year. She knew he was much stronger than he thought he was. She knew he would become something amazing in the future.

However, this wasn't his stage, not yet.

So Pyrrha would die, and Jaune would live. One too self-sacrificing, the other too weak.

That was how things should have gone.

This time, this night, things went differently.

The moment Pyrrha began to push him away, things suddenly clicked in Jaune's mind. He saw what she was about to do. The shock of feeling Pyrrha's lips on his own was replaced by the most mind-numbing terror Jaune had ever experienced. Jaune was terrified because he was once again becoming what he hated most. A guy stuck on a tree while his friends saved the world. Jaune was terrified because he was about to lose the person who mattered to him most. The one who believed in him when no one else had.

His hand lashed out. His body moved not by courage and determination, but by fear and self-loathing.

Those were enough.

His hand reached hers. Pyrrha's shocked green eyes met his fear-filled blue ones. Jaune didn't want to be left behind. He didn't want to be useless. He didn't want Pyrrha to die. He needed to do something to help her, anything.

Light burst from their entwined fingers.

xXx

Everything was proceeding as planned.

Ozpin was dead. The Fall Maiden's powers were finally hers. Grimm were flocking to the city by the dozen. Even the mechanical might of Atlas was under her command. In time, the soldiers and the Hunters would tire themselves out. The Grimm sapped away their strength bit by bit with their unending numbers. The Paladins were more than a match for the few students fighting out there.

Beacon would fall before the night was over. Vale would soon follow.

Cinder allowed herself a smile as she watched the devastation happening below her. The Grimm dragon chose that moment to perch itself on the side of the tower. Cinder's hand reached for the window.

"It is okay," she said to the giant beast in soothing tones. "This is your home now."

Not even a second after she said it, a ten-wheeler compacted into a rudimentary yet massive spear hit the dragon's head at over ten times the speed of sound.

The effect was instantaneous. The massive chunk of metal tore through the dragon's head, just barely missing the CCT Tower as it continued its flight. The force behind the impact was enough to shatter every window in the tower. Cinder brought her hands up to protect her eyes from the flying shards of glass.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flicker of gold.

It was all the warning she received.

With inhuman reflexes, Cinder brought her hand up. Fire exploded in front of her just in time to push back the javelin that would have surely hit her head otherwise.

The weapon did not fall to the ground. Instead, it floated through the air, back to the hand of its owner. As the dragon's body faded away before it could hit the ground, Cinder saw the flying form of Pyrrha Nikos rising to meet her level.

No, Cinder corrected herself, willing herself to be calm. Not flying. The redhead stood on her shield which levitated in the air thanks to her Semblance. It was an impressive display, but nothing more. That and the stunt against the dragon should have drained her Aura quite a bit. Maybe if she had used her Aura with greater prudence, she could have been a minor annoyance. As it was, Pyrrha Nikos was just…

"Another fool…"

With a confident smirk, Cinder motioned Pyrrha to come over.

Pyrrha did. The girl jumped off her shield and came at Cinder like a comet, her javelin held high and aimed at Cinder's neck. Her shield followed after her, quickly taking its position in her hand. To Cinder, that didn't matter. Pyrrha's linear charge was exactly what she wanted.

Cinder called upon the power of the Fall Maiden and bathed the world in fire.

In an instant, Pyrrha's body was completely engulfed by flames. The shield did not matter. It could not protect Pyrrha from the heat. Her Aura could have protected her, but not in its current state. Cinder had paid close attention to all of Pyrrha's fights during the tournament. She had a pretty good idea of just how much Aura Pyrrha Nikos had. The power she had just used should be just enough to overwhelm what little Aura the girl had left.

Which was why Cinder's eyes widened in shock when Pyrrha burst through the flames with her clothes only lightly singed. Pyrrha's javelin shifted into a sword and slashed across her chest. Her shield came up next, hitting Cinder right in the face, forcing her back.

Cinder regained her footing just in time to dodge Pyrrha's follow-up attack. She growled as she summoned her twin blades and dashed in.

Blades clashed. Sparks flew.

Flames erupted from the ground, but Pyrrha nimbly rolled to the side before charging at Cinder, shield first. The older woman sidestepped and brought her blades down on Pyrrha, but the redhead was quick to move her shield up just in time to block.

No, Cinder realized. Her body hadn't been fast enough. Her mind had. She had used her Semblance to move the shield in time to block.

Which meant that when Pyrrha let go of her shield, it stayed in place.

The redhead kicked the ground as she suddenly shifted directions and struck Cinder's side with her elbow. Cinder grunted before bringing her knee up just in time to hit Pyrrha's chin. Fire erupted in her hands as she prepared to burn the impudent fool and…

Cinder hesitated.

It cost her. Pyrrha allowed herself to fall back before planting her hands on the ground and twisted her body to deliver a brutal kick that sent Cinder flying into a wall.

Why had that happened?

Cinder asked herself that question as she stood up. Why hadn't she called upon the Maiden's power back there? Was it because her foe was too close? Had she hesitated because she hadn't yet mastered the Fall Maiden's power? Had she been afraid of hurting herself with the power she had so desperately sought?

Unacceptable!

The power of the Maiden belonged to her and no one else! It was her right!

Her Destiny!

Cinder slashed the air with her arm and sent forth a huge wave of flames. Pyrrha immediately pulled a large metal desk in front of her using her Semblance. It melted in seconds but managed to mitigate the damage, if barely. With another wave of Cinder's hand, the ground lit up. Pyrrha barely had time to roll out of the way before it exploded in fire.

Cinder lunged, flames propelling her body. She reached Pyrrha before the redhead could get back to her feet. Cinder's sword slashed down. Pyrrha barely managed to raise her shield in time to meet the attack. Cinder quickly pivoted, summoned another blade, and aimed it at her head.

Aura was all that protected Pyrrha. Stars filled her vision before Cinder's follow-up kick sent her flying into a wall. Dazed, the redhead looked up and saw a stream of flames heading for her. She jumped to the side but couldn't dodge the attack completely. Her arm was caught in the blast.

Even so, Pyrrha stood up. Her breath came out in pants. There were burns and bruises on her skin. She was tired. Cinder knew this was almost over. Even so, the girl still did not stay down.

It didn't make sense.

As the most likely candidate for Fall Maiden, Cinder had paid extra attention to Pyrrha Nikos. She had studied all her matches. Not just her fights in the Vytal Festival. Not just her spars during Combat Class. Cinder had made sure to acquire videos of her tournament matches as well.

Pyrrha Nikos should not be this fast!

Pyrrha Nikos should not be this strong!

Pyrrha Nikos should have run out of aura and died already!

"How?" She shouted as she locked blades with the girl. "You did not receive the Maiden's power! How are you still standing?"

"Maybe I found something better," the girl replied. She even had the gall to smile. Cinder wanted to immolate her right there and then. However, before she could do anything, Cinder heard something crack.

Pyrrha jumped back. Cinder turned in time to see a massive gear break from the ceiling.

"Useless!" Cinder hissed as flames exploded all around her, forcing the gear back, even melting it a little.

However, doing so caused her to lose sight of Pyrrha for an instant.

Cinder didn't see Pyrrha's next attack. She felt it as Pyrrha collided with her with all the force of a speeding train.

The night's sky filled Cinder's sight.

Pyrrha had tackled her out of a building.

"You fool!" Cinder growled as she shook off Pyrrha. Flames erupted from her hands, slowing her fall. "You thought you could take me down with yo-oomph!"

A soda vending machine, of all things, flew out of the tower and struck Cinder's back. Then a desk. Then a chair. Then another vending machine. Sheer quantity overwhelmed Cinder for an instant as Pyrrha used her Semblance to surround her with metal.

Surrounded by metal guided by her foe's Semblance, Cinder crashed into the ground like a meteor.

For a moment, there was shock. Humiliation and embarrassment came next.

Rage followed.

An explosion rocked the area as Cinder stood up, everything around her blown away by its sheer force. Angry golden eyes fiercely searched her foe.

Where had she gone? Had she run away? No, that would not do. She would hunt her down. She would pay her for this humiliation! She would-

Patience, Cinder reminded herself. She couldn't waste time on minor distractions. She still had the Grimm. She still had the White Fang. She still had the Paladins. Beacon would fall. What mattered most was bringing down the tower and-

Instinct guiding her movements, Cinder turned just in time to dodge an incoming bullet. Her eyes widened when she saw the shooter.

Impossible.

Pyrrha Nikos stood in front of her again, her weapon now in rifle form. That was not the surprising part.

Her wounds were gone.

Her body was still covered in sweat and soot, but that was all. Her breathing was steady, not a shred of exhaustion to be seen. The damage her Aura hadn't fully been able to shield her from, the burns and bruises Cinder had done to her throughout the fight, it was gone.

It didn't make any sense.

The girl smiled.

"Hello again!"

Cinder replied with fire.

As much as the fall had hurt her, the change in battlefield suited her. Ozpin's office was too small to cut loose. Now that they were in the courtyard in front of the CCT Tower, Cinder was free to use her full power without restraint, and she did. The trees burned. The asphalt melted.

Pyrrha was stuck frantically dodging for her life.

The girl called a lamppost to her, uprooting it from the ground. Cinder melted it before it even got close to her. There was not much metal to work with in this place. The building nearest to the CCT Tower was a hundred yards away.

A cracking sound reached Cinder's ears. She looked back just in time to see a massive pipe break through the ground.

A water pipe.

Whether you see it or not, a city always had metal nearby.

Water doused Cinder. Steam rose from her body.

"You think this matters!" She yelled at Pyrrha. "Do you think a little water will prevail over the power of the Fall Maiden!"

Pyrrha shook her head. "I was not counting on the water, no."

The confidence in the redhead's face gave Cinder pause. Warily, she looked at the water pooling at her feet. Her gaze followed the water just in time to see it reach the place from where Pyrrha had ripped the lamppost.

Water touched the power line.

Electricity rocked Cinder's body, sending pain through every inch of her nervous system. Spots appeared in her vision, threatening to take her consciousness away.

No!

This would not happen. She would not lose! Not after coming this far. Not after overcoming so much. She was strong. She was feared.

She was powerful!

Summoning all her willpower, Cinder called upon the Maiden's power again. Everything around her exploded.

"You will not win!" Cinder said, panting as she stood up. The water had been all blown away or evaporated. There was nothing left to conduct the electricity. However, the damage had been done. Her dress was torn and burned in various places. Her muscles twitched randomly. Many wounds decorated her body. "Try as much as you can, you cannot keep me from my Destiny!"

Pyrrha's answer was to bash Cinder's face with her shield.

Cinder reeled back but managed to catch the sword thrust that followed with her bare hand, pushing it to the side, and drove her fist against Pyrrha's stomach. Instead of backing away, the redhead planted her foot forward and slammed her forehead against Cinder's. A vicious shield bash followed. Cinder didn't back down. She drove her feet hard on top of Pyrrha's, making her lose her footing and capitalized by striking her throat. Pyrrha grabbed hold of Cinder's long hair to stop herself from falling and pulled Cinder towards her, hitting her with her sword's pommel.

It wasn't elegant. It wasn't graceful. There was barely a shred of skill to be seen.

It was simply two people trying to do as much damage to each other as possible without any concern for their safety.

However, someone had to win.

At the last moment, Cinder's summoned sword shifted to become a bow. The increased length caught Pyrrha off-guard as Cinder slammed it hard against her stomach. With one last burst of Maiden power, Cinder blew Pyrrha away.

Her Aura broke.

"It's over," Cinder said as she slowly walked towards Pyrrha, her bow shifting into a sword. It was not out of a sense of drama that she walked slowly. Her body was really that tired. However, it didn't matter. She had won. She would finish this and then regain her strength.

A high-caliber bullet struck the side of her head.

It was the tipping point. Cinder's Aura broke. Spots swam in her vision. Her brain felt like it was bouncing all over the inside of her skull. It spoke volumes of her skill that she managed to dodge the next bullet in time.

More foes. Where?

No time. She needed distance. Fire bloomed from her hands. It drained her, but it was the only way. She needed to reassess the situation, regain her strength, allow her Aura to recover. Flying was the quickest way out.

She couldn't.

For some reason, her body would not leave the ground. Cinder looked down and found a glyph beneath her feet, binding her, banning her from the sky with the force of gravity.

Ice followed, trapping her body with unbreakable coldness.

Cinder lifted her gaze.

The last thing she saw was Pyrrha's javelin before it pierced her throat.

xXx

They had done it.

Pyrrha panted as she rested her hands on her knees. She wanted to let herself fall to the ground, but she knew that if she did, she wouldn't wake for days.

"Pyrrha!" She looked up and smiled as she saw Ruby and Weiss making their way to her. It was a good thing they arrived when they did. A little more and she might not have made it.

It was an uncomfortable thought.

Ruby reached her first, courtesy of her Semblance. "Are you okay? What am I saying? Of course, you're not okay! You look terrible! We need to get you to a doctor!"

Pyrrha laughed as Ruby zipped around her like a hyperactive hummingbird. It was a nice bit of normality after a harrowing ordeal. She looked at Weiss. The white-haired girl's gaze was focused on Cinder. Her blood kept dripping down the ice, tainting it. Ruby's gaze flashed towards the corpse, an uncomfortable look on her face.

It was to be expected.

Pyrrha had talked with Blake after the Breach. The way the faunus told it, lots of White Fang members had died there. However, there was a difference between kicking someone from a train, leaving their fate to the hordes of Grimm after it, and executing someone who, to a casual observer, looked to be defeated. Truth be told, Pyrrha wasn't exactly comfortable with it, but she told herself there was no other way.

"It had to be done," Pyrrha reassured them. She tried to take a step forward but stumbled and would have fallen if not for Ruby zipping to her side and catching her. "The power of the Fall Maiden was too dangerous in her hands."

Confusion flashed across their faces. That was also natural. They didn't know the full story.

"You will have to tell us the full story later," Weiss said, her gaze looking around for any nearby Grimm.

"You have my word."

"Hey, where is Jaune?" Ruby said, also looking around. "He was the one who told us you needed help."

Jaune!

Pyrrha's eyes widened. In an instant, she shook Ruby off and dashed inside the CCT tower. She found Jaune where she had left him. Right next to the elevator. That was where they had decided Jaune should stay during the fight. Had Pyrrha brought Jaune along, Cinder would have surely targeted him, doubly so when she realized Jaune could boost her. When Pyrrha had made Cinder crash into the ground, she had managed to sneak into the tower to have Jaune charge her one last time. That had also been part of the plan.

Jaune was sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the walls. His scroll was laid next to him. His aura was dangerously in the red.

Three charges had really been pushing it.

Even so, Jaune smiled when he saw her. Pyrrha felt her heart soar. Tears filled her eyes as she made her way to him.

"Hey, there," He said. His skin was pale, cold. He would need lots of rest after pushing himself like this. Overusing his Semblance like he had right after discovering it could not possibly be healthy. However, there had been no other way.

"It's over," Pyrrha said.

Jaune's smile grew.

"Heh, knew you'd do it."

"Not I." Pyrrha took hold of his hand. "Without you, I wouldn't be here. This is your victory too."

"Guess we're a pretty badass team, huh?"

Pyrrha smiled.

"The best."

* * *

**Extra: Take Two**

* * *

The Fall of Beacon had arrived.

Pyrrha Nikos and Jaune Arc's lips met for the first and last time. In a few seconds, Pyrrha would push Jaune into a locker and send him away. She would go face Cinder, and she would die.

That was how things should have happened.

This time, this night, they didn't. Instead, it was Jaune who grabbed Pyrrha and pushed her into the locker. It was Jaune who sent her away.

Now, it was important to recognize the odds of such an event happening were impossibly low. The odds of Jaune Arc getting the better of Pyrrha Nikos in anything resembling a fight were lower than the odds of winning the lottery.

They were even lower than the odds of a Tsukihime remake!

That was how low the odds were.

However, this night, Jaune succeeded. Maybe it was because every dog had its day. Maybe it was because Jaune wanted it that badly. Maybe it was because he pinched Pyrrha's ass, causing her mind to temporarily shut down.

It was definitely one of those three.

In any case, this time it was Pyrrha who banged her fists against the locker as it took to the skies. By the time she considered using her Semblance, the locker had already reached its point of highest elevation. Leaving the locker at that moment meant a long and dangerous fall.

From Pyrrha Nikos' point of view, it took an eternity for gravity to do its work.

The moment the locker crashed, the doors were ripped apart as Pyrrha burst into action. She ran with all her strength. In less than ten seconds, she had already cleared four blocks. She needed to get to the tower. She needed to get to Jaune. She couldn't let him-

The tower fell.

Pyrrha's eyes widened as the massive dragon completely destroyed the tower, sending it crumbling down.

"No," she whispered, falling to her knees, all her strength gone. A tear fell from her eye.

Her scroll rang.

In her grief and rage, Pyrrha threw it away. Only by sheer luck did she spot the Caller ID as it hit the ground. It was a call from Jaune's scroll.

How?

The CCT was down. No. Pyrrha shook her head. That didn't matter. The CCT may be down, but the scroll-to-scroll local network should still work. Especially at this distance. Was it Jaune? Was he still alive? Or…

Pyrrha's face darkened.

Was this a call from his killer?

With trembling hands, Pyrrha reached out to pick the scroll. Swallowing, she hit the answer button.

Jaune's face popped into view.

"Pyrrha! Thank the Brothers you're safe! I'm so sorry about the locker. There weren't many choices back there and-."

"You're alive!"

Jaune looked at himself. He seemed to be running. "Yes? I mean, I ran into a couple of Beowolves, but nothing I couldn't handle."

"You didn't go into the tower?"

Jaune shot her an odd look. "No? Pyrrha, I didn't think you were going to survive going into that tower. Why on Remnant would I go in? I ran away the moment the locker took off."

Pyrrha flushed. "B-But Ozpin said-"

Jaune's face darkened. A tiny part of Pyrrha noted it wasn't a bad look on him. "Yeah, well, Ozpin also strapped you into some weird machine that hurt you. I am not exactly feeling a lot of love for the guy right now… may he rest in peace."

"But with the CTT gone, communication between the Kingdoms will be almost impossible!"

Jaune sighs. "Yeah, I get that, but…look, we both know I didn't sign up to become a Hunter for the best of reasons."

"Jaune," Pyrrha sighed. He always thought too little of himself. "That's not-"

"No, it's fine. I'm not beating myself down," Jaune reassured her. "It's just that… some people joined because they wanted to save people. I didn't. Not really. I joined Beacon because I didn't want to feel like a failure anymore. I thought that if I could be a hero like every other one of my ancestors, I would feel better about myself. That didn't happen."

Jaune's eyes met hers, and even through the scroll, Pyrrha felt her breath be taken away.

"It was you," Jaune said. "Getting into Beacon, unlocking my Aura. That wasn't what changed me. You believing in me did. You made me like myself. Meeting you, becoming friends with you is the best thing that ever happened to me. You, Ren, Nora, Ruby, everyone else. If I like myself now, it is because you all taught me there was something in me worth liking."

Jaune took a deep breath. Whether it was due to running or from unloading all that from his chest, Pyrrha didn't know. She also didn't know what she was supposed to say to that.

"I know bad things will happen without the CCT. I know a real hero should care about that. A real hero, someone like you or Ruby, would have gone into that tower. I'm not that guy. I know I should care, but I don't. Right now, I'm just happy you are alive. If I have to pick between you and the CCT, I will pick you every time. I don't care about what happens to the rest of the world. I care that you are safe."

"Huh." Jaune suddenly frowned. "The color's gone wonky. Seems like the scroll-to-scroll network took a hit. Anyway, I am running towards you as we speak. See you soon."

As Jaune ended the call, Pyrrha tried to calm herself down. The image had been working just fine. The problem was Pyrrha whose skin had gone neon red. Her heart was beating faster and harder than it ever had in any of her fights.

It would take a long time for the Invincible Girl to recover from such a strong critical hit.

* * *

**AN: As far as ideas go, you can say this is another low-hanging fruit. What if Jaune discovered his Semblance during the Fall of Beacon? Again, seems like an obvious one, but I don't think I have seen anyone do it. I have seen plenty of 'Jaune dies in Pyrrha's place' or 'Jaune unlocks a super Semblance and wins', but never just plain 'He unlocks his canon Semblance and uses that.'**

**Here, Jaune gives Pyrrha a total of 3 boosts of Aura Amplification. One to kill the dragon. Another to instantly recover from that and face Cinder with some buffs equipped. And a final one to recover her HP. I'll admit I am taking some liberties with his Semblance since we don't know the full details just yet.**

**The Extra is there half to have fun and half to make up for the lack of Jaune in the main story. Being a healer is a thankless role. Also, telling the fight from Cinder's point of view felt like the best choice.**

**Next time, we'll venture into more AU waters. Till then!**


	3. Maybe I am a Lion

**Let's go.**

* * *

**Maybe I am a Lion**

* * *

Jaune Arc would be the first to admit he had made many boneheaded decisions throughout his life. There was the time he tried to start a campfire using Dust, the time his sisters asked him to go shopping with them, and he foolishly said yes. There was also the time his sisters convinced him glitter was a good look on him, and of course, the time in fifth grade he thought asking out Mean Chloe was a good idea. As it turned, the kids called her Mean Chloe for a reason.

So yeah, Jaune had done a lot of dumb things.

However, joining the White Fang topped the list by a very wide margin.

Maybe, just maybe, things would have turned out differently if Jaune hadn't been born the way he was. Maybe if he had just been another child of Jean and Marie Arc, things would have gone differently for him. Alas, he was Jaune Arc, the only illegitimate child of Jean Arc. Out of eight siblings, he was the only one with a tail.

Jaune's father, Jean Arc, was an amazing huntsman, one of the best. He traveled all over Remnant, slew Grimm, and saved people. He was a hero.

He also cheated on his wife.

To say Jaune had mixed feelings about his father would be an understatement.

As it turned out, being a huntsman could be a very stressful job, especially for those who worked outside the kingdoms. Going from mission to mission, killing Grimm, never quite knowing whether you were going to make it back home or not. It all piled up. Sometimes Jaune's father would be on a mission for weeks, sometimes more than a month. On nights where it all became too much, Jean Arc would seek comfort where he could find it, and there was no shortage of women willing to sleep with an attractive huntsman.

Jaune was the product of one of those nights.

He didn't know his birth mother. At least, he didn't remember her. All Jaune knew about her was that she managed to track his father down and dumped him on Jean. From what his older sisters told him, there had been one hell of a fight that day. There had been yelling and screaming. Weapons were drawn. Semblances were used. When it was all said and done, Jaune was accepted into the Arc household, and Jean Arc was literally chained to the couch for the following month.

A lesser woman would have taken out her anger on the child. Not Marie Arc. She raised Jaune as one of her own and grew to love him as such. Likewise, her daughters quickly warmed up to their newest sibling. Jaune was raised as an Arc. He learned about his family, about its history. He learned the Arc family had protected the people of Remnant for generations.

There were even history books that talked about his ancestors and their many accomplishments. How many of the kids at school that liked to pull his tail could claim that? Not one. That was how many. Jaune would be lying if he said he didn't find the whole thing awesome. He liked being part of that legacy.

However, he wasn't, not really. Jaune was an intruder. No matter how kind Marie was to him. No matter how much he considered her his mother. No matter how much he loved his sisters, he didn't belong, not really. His father's infidelity tainted him from the moment he was conceived. His tail more than proved that.

Maybe that was why Jaune sought his place elsewhere.

Maybe if Jaune had grown up in Vale or Vacuo, things would have been different. Unfortunately, Jaune grew up in Mistral. He grew up seeing small injustices done against the faunus every day. He saw them, and his heart rebelled against them. Wasn't standing up against injustice what the people of his family were supposed to do? Even if his dad was kind of a jerk, wasn't that a legacy worth upholding?

If the world was wrong, then surely fixing it was the right thing to do?

Ultimately, Jaune had been all too eager to leave his mark on the world, to do as his ancestors had. Too eager to find a place to call his own. That was why he was so easily convinced to join the White Fang. Well, that and a couple of other things.

Damn that cow faunus and her big… pamphlets.

Jaune was lured to a White Fang's rally. The speaker's rhetoric hit home with him. The crowd's enthusiasm had been contagious. Before he knew it, Jaune was putting on a stupid Grimm mask and cheering. In hindsight, it really had been the worst decision of his life.

Maybe if he hadn't been born a faunus. Maybe if his dad wasn't a womanizer. Maybe if he hadn't been raised in Mistral. Maybe if he hadn't been so damn stupid and eager to find his place in the world. Yeah, maybe if all those things weren't true, Jaune wouldn't be standing in front of Adam freaking Taurus.

But they were, and he was.

"Do you know why I have called you here today?" asked the most dangerous man in the White Fang.

Jaune took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. It was not an easy task seeing as how he was alone with Adam in the dungeons of an actual castle. It was a leftover from the Great War the White Fang was now using as a hideout. There were many like it scattered outside the kingdoms. The war and the Grimm had done a number of it, but it was still habitable.

Truth be told, Jaune had some ideas as to why Adam summoned him. An attack on an SDC medical facility that had been foiled by an anonymous call to the police, a bomb that mysteriously failed to activate, and of course, all the money Jaune had been saving for a one-way ticket to Vacuo, money which he may or may not be discretely stealing from the White Fang's funds.

Still, there was no indication anyone had found out about that stuff. If Adam knew about it, he'd be already in chains or possibly in pieces. Right now, it was best if Jaune played dumb. It shouldn't be hard. His sisters always said playing dumb came naturally to him.

"N-No, s-sir. Not at all," Jaune said, quickly shaking his head. He couldn't stop the stutter, but that was fine. Lots of White Fang members got nervous around Adam. Most did it because they thought he was the coolest thing ever. An unfortunate minority did it because they had something resembling sense.

Adam held Jaune's gaze for one impossibly long second. At least, Jaune assumed he did. It was always hard to tell with the mask.

"Blake Belladonna has abandoned the White Fang." The words were delivered coldly, with just barely a hint of repressed anger. However, Adam might as well have drawn his sword and held it at Jaune's throat.

Jaune had heard some rumors but to have them confirmed like this? This was bad. No, this was horrible.

Jaune had never met Blake Belladonna, not formally. He had seen her once or twice around some of their bases, but that was it. They had never worked together. They hadn't even talked once. Still, Jaune knew exactly how important Blake Belladonna was.

While Blake did not hold a position of leadership in the White Fang, she was important by virtue of being the daughter of the former High Leader, Ghira Belladonna. Her presence in the White Fang after Ghira left had given Sienna's rule an added layer of legitimacy. It still did in some ways though Sienna had more than consolidated her position. However, the inner politics of the White Fang were not the reason why Jaune's skin had gone as white as paper.

Blake Belladonna was Adam's girlfriend.

Blake Belladonna was Adam's girlfriend, and she had left the White Fang, meaning she had also left Adam. Jaune was alone in a room with one of Remnant's most dangerous men who was now recently dumped.

This was not his day.

"…I-I had heard rumors. I n-never thought they'd be true." Word of mouth traveled fast in the White Fang. It was not exactly professional, but the White Fang wasn't the most professional of organizations to begin with.

According to the rumors, a job involving a shipment of Dust had gone wrong. In the aftermath, Blake had disappeared, and Adam had burned down the forest in his rage. Now that Jaune knew the part about Blake leaving was true, he was really hoping the part about Adam burning everything around him in a fit of rage was less than accurate.

"Unfortunately, it is not a rumor but reality. One of our most loyal has turned her back on the cause," Adam's fingers drifted closer to his sword. Jaune stiffened. "That is why I called you here."

"Me?" What on Remnant did Adam think he could do? He wasn't a tracker. He didn't know Blake. There was nothing he could do to help find her.

"You are one of our best infiltrators." There was not even a hint of praise in those words. Jaune considered it a win that Adam said it without any hostility.

While it was true Jaune was one of the best infiltrators the White Fang had at their disposal, it wasn't because he was some sort of super skilled ninja. Not even close.

"That is only due to my Semblance," Jaune said, before quickly adding, "sir."

There were many theories about Aura and Semblances, nearly all of them unconfirmed. Still, it didn't stop people from talking. According to some, a person's Semblance said a lot about the type of person he was. According to others, it said a lot about the type of person he wanted to become.

What then did Jaune's Semblance say about him when it gave him the ability to change into a human?

Jaune discovered his Semblance when he was nine. He had gotten lost in the lower levels of Mistral. A gang from the upper levels had come down, looking for some faunus to harass. It happened from time to time. Jaune had been so scared he hid in a trash can, praying they wouldn't find him. They hadn't.

When he came out, his tail was gone.

It took a lot of experimenting with his family to find out what happened. When Jaune activated his Semblance, all his faunus traits disappeared. Not just the noticeable ones like his tail, but also the not-so-noticeable ones like excellent night vision. There was no time limit to the change. Only activating his Semblance again could turn him back into a faunus.

After joining the White Fang, Jaune went through a couple more tests. Apparently, the change went all the way down to his blood. There was no test on Remnant that could reveal him as a faunus when he used his Semblance.

It made him perfect for the White Fang's needs.

"I am aware of that," Adam replied. "However, your Semblance's effectiveness cannot be denied. It allows you to access places our brethren cannot. Time and time again, you have proved yourself to the White Fang! You have gone where we needed you to go and provided the information we required."

Because he had been young and stupid.

"I know others look down on you due to your Semblance," Adam said, placing a hand on Jaune's shoulder. The gesture was probably meant to be reassuring, but all Jaune could think of was how close Adam's sword was at the moment. "However, I see the good you have done for the White Fang's glorious purpose. I see your worth. That is why I am confident you are perfect for this job. You are the only one I can trust with this, Jaune Arc. Upon your success, I will see to it that you receive the recognition you deserve! You have my word on that."

This was probably how Adam got so many fans, Jaune realized. It was not about the words. It was the passion with which he spoke them. It filled the room in an instant in a way that was almost suffocating, as if there was no choice but to let it smother you.

However, Jaune was not some green recruit or a catgirl. He had once seen a snake faunus bite a harmless Dust shop owner during a theft. The poison had been so bad the man's head turned into a swollen, purple thing within the minute. Jaune still remembered the man's screams.

After that, the White Fang's "glorious purpose" didn't seem so glorious anymore.

That was why Jaune was able to see past the praise and promises and zero-in on what was important.

"You already know where she is," Jaune realized. That was the only reason Adam would need him.

"I know Blake better than she knows herself," Adam said with all the confidence in the world. His lips curled into a satisfied smile. "A lesser person would hide in the middle of nowhere. However, my love will do no such thing. Blake will seek to make some sort of grand statement if only to herself. She can be melodramatic like that."

Jaune stared.

Who was Adam to call anyone melodramatic?

"She is planning on becoming a huntress. Beacon is the closest academy, and an informant of ours already confirmed her presence in Vale. Your job will be to observe her. Using your Semblance, you will be able to approach and observe Blake without making her suspicious."

Jaune winced. Adam made an annoyingly good point. In human form, Blake would never suspect him of being part of the White Fang. At worst, he would come across as a creepy stalker, and that was only if he messed up. That was an advantage other members of the White Fang didn't have. They might be able to wear hats to hide their ears or baggy pants to disguise their tails, but that didn't come close to being fully human.

Jaune needed to figure out a way to turn down the mission without directly addressing that issue or angering Adam, and he needed to do it fast. His trip to Vacuo got further away the longer this conversation got.

"Sir," Jaune said, tugging his collar. "I understand why you want me to do this but getting inside Beacon would be really difficult. It's not like applying for some low-paying job at one of the SDC's factories. Who even knows if they are hiring right now?"

Adam smiled.

It wasn't a good smile.

"Jaune," he said. "I don't expect you to go to Beacon as some random worker."

Jaune froze.

"You want me to go… as a student?" Jaune pointed at himself. "Me?"

"Why not? You have received training, have you not?" Adam said. "If the humans who enjoy pampered lifestyles inside the kingdoms can pass the initiation, why wouldn't one of our own be capable of it? Our brothers and sisters in Vale have already procured the services of a skilled forger for your transcripts."

It was amazing how confident Adam could sound in his own plans. He spoke as if there really was nothing to worry about.

It was true Jaune had received training. The older members of the White Fang were veterans of the Faunus War. They had their auras unlocked and years of combat experience. They were too old to fight anymore but not too old to train others. Members who had been with the White Fang long enough received basic training from them. Members who had potential received particularly grueling training.

Jaune had sadly been deemed as someone with potential.

Jaune knew how to fight even if he had never quite gotten the hang of what Baloo called "the bare necessities of life." He had even fought Grimm in the past. Jaune figured that if he pushed himself, he could probably beat the students of some combat schools.

Of course, that didn't really matter. There were plenty of people who went to combat schools and still failed to enter a Huntsman Academy. In fact, there were more than a hundred combat schools training hopeful would-be huntresses and huntsmen and only four Academies. That was how difficult entering any Academy was.

And yet, Jaune knew that if he pointed any of this out, Adam would completely dismiss it.

"I understand, sir." Jaune wanted to sigh. He really did. "Assuming it goes as planned, am I supposed to capture Blake and bring her to the nearest base?"

It was something Jaune wasn't looking forward to. Blake had done what he had been wanting to do for a long time now. Dragging her back to save his own skin would be one hell of a dick move. Also, she'd probably kick his ass. Jaune may have some training, but Blake was the one who regularly fought alongside the strongest fighter in the White Fang.

"You do not have to do anything at all. Your job is to observe her without raising suspicions. Nothing more." Adam seemed to notice Jaune's confusion, because he added, "While normally I would like nothing more than to be reunited with my love, I have important matters to attend to. All I need is that you keep an eye on Blake while she is at Beacon. Make sure she remains there."

Well, there went his last round of objections. Provided he passed Beacon's initiation–and Jaune was going to try his best because Adam would have his head if he failed–he would be doing this mission for the foreseeable future and…

Wait.

Jaune blinked.

Why was this a bad thing?

If Jaune passed the initiation, then that was it. Nearly all his problems would be solved. Beacon was one of the safest places on Remnant. Assuming everything went well, Jaune would gain a huntsman's license in four years. In the meantime, the only thing he needed to do was send the occasional report saying Blake was still at Beacon. That was it. Hell, he could probably quit the White Fang from Beacon.

What was the White Fang going to do about it?

Attack a Huntsman Academy?

"Understood. You can trust me with this job, sir," Jaune said, trying to solemn.

Adam smiled and extended his hand. "Please, call me Adam."

With hidden motives in their minds, the two shook hands.

* * *

_Jean Arc: Jaune's name was originally meant to be Jean (as in blue jeans). I used that name for his father here._

_Marie Arc: In this case, Marie's name is directly derived from Maris, meaning sea. It only works as a color if you assume Latin exists on Remnant, but half the names in the show rely on a language other than English existing._

_Baloo: Means bear. If Qrow counts as a color so does bear._

* * *

**AN: How much can you change a character's circumstances before it stops being that character? It's something to think about with AUs. Imagine a world where Summer made her move before Raven, or maybe a world where Raven wasn't the worst mom ever (too unrealistic, I know) and stayed with Tai, or a world where the Nuck never attacked Kuroyuri. An older Ruby, a Yang that never had to take care of a little sister, a Ren that grows up a happy, normal child. That's obviously going to have repercussions on them, but you still kind of want to keep an intrinsic part of who the characters are untouched.**

**In canon, Jaune's feelings of inadequacy, the gap between who he is and the family standards he feels he has to live up to, push him to enter Beacon with fake transcripts. Here, his father's infidelity and being a faunus push Jaune to try to find his path elsewhere. Sadly, he ends up with the White Fang. Unlike Blake who was with the White Fang from the start and didn't realize how far they had fallen until it was too late, Jaune would be someone who went in thinking he could do some good and realized he had signed up for a terrorist organization. This would play a part in their respective attitudes towards the White Fang through the story.**

**The main team for this story would be** **WABN (Weiss, Jaune, Blake, and Pyrra). Jaune wants to keep a low profile, so naturally he ends up in the most high-profile team possible. The Heiress to the SDC, a four-time Mistral Regional Champion, and the daughter of the Chieftain of Menagerie.**

**The other reason for these members would be to actually try to explore the themes of prejudice in the show. All four characters lend themselves well to it. Pyrrha has fame and status but with that comes isolation as everyone is quick to place her on a pedestal. Weiss was born into privilege but bears the burden of what her father has done to the Schnee name and the enmity she has earned from the faunus and other people as a result. Blake's deal goes without saying.**

**Meanwhile, Jaune would be someone who, due to his Semblance, is in an odd position where he can cross the line between human and faunus. One plot point for this would be Jaune reaching a point where he wonders whether he is a faunus who can change into a human or a human who can change into a faunus. For all anyone knows, he could have first used his Semblance as a baby.**

**Anyway, I'm rambling now. Although I think I'll take some time to go a bit in depth on each idea from now on. Yeah, I'll probably do that.**

**Till next time!**


	4. Individual System

**Individual System**

* * *

Gray Rook fought the urge to yawn as he saw yet another applicant battle against a combat droid.

Once upon a time, the Atlesian Knight 45 (AK-45 for short) had been top of the line equipment. However, times changed, and technology moved forward. Now, the AK-45 was relegated to testing the skills of teenagers in combat schools all over Atlas.

As one of Atlas' top 3 combat schools, Hyades Academy was no different. In fact, due to receiving quite a bit of funding from the military, Hyades Academy could afford to use AK-45s as part of their entrance exam. Applicants were made to fight against the combat droid on one-on-one matches while a panel of judges watched their performance in a separate room and graded them.

Naturally, those who defeated the droid received high grades, but victory was not necessary for a passing grade. Judges looked not only for fighting skill, but also adaptability, a cool head in stressful situations, and resourcefulness.

The current applicant showed none of those things.

Rook sought refuge in his coffee to avoid having to watch the blond applicant try and fail to dodge the droid's strikes. Pitiful. The thing was even set on the lowest difficulty. If he were a judge, Rook would have already failed him. However, that wasn't his job.

Rook was a Specialist.

In Atlas, the military worked closely not only with its Huntsman Academy but also with the multiple combat schools all over the kingdom. Hyades was no exception. Rook's job was to keep an eye out for any promising talent and pass the information to his superiors, so they may be taken into consideration. All thing considered, it was a rather simple job.

It was also a very tedious one.

Watching untrained and half-trained teenagers fighting was painful. Watching kids who thought they were hot shit because they could beat a droid or two was even worse. Out of sheer boredom, Rook took a look at the current applicant's other test scores. What he found was average from start to finish. Knowledge Assessment. Average. Physical Assessment. Average. Combat Assessment. In-Progress. Aura Assessment. O-

Rook spat his coffee all over the desk, barely managing to get his scroll out of the way in time.

The act drew the attention of the judges. Rook hurriedly raised his hand to assure them he was fine while trying to get his coughing under control. His eyes quickly went back to his scroll. There was no way. It couldn't be possible. Jaune Arc was an untrained teen whose aura was obviously still locked. A scrawny little thing like that couldn't possibly have that type of results.

Yet that was what his screen displayed.

Rook frowned. The science of Aura was complicated and best left to those with bigger brains than him. However, even he understood the basics.

The technology to measure someone's Aura had been born in Atlas. It was a great scientific breakthrough at the time and led to the creation of Aura meters which were immediately put to use in the Vytal Festival. In the old days, only special arenas could display Aura meters, but with time, the technology had grown smaller and easier to manufacture. Nowadays, it was as easy as having the right type of scroll.

However, that was only true for those whose Aura was already unlocked. Measuring the Aura of someone whose Aura was still locked was a completely different game.

In fact, until about a year ago, it had been impossible. The technology had been created by Atlas and was still in its testing stages. That meant only the military, Atlas Academy, and a few combat schools in the kingdom had access to it. Combat schools outside Atlas would have had no way of seeing Jaune Arc's latent aura.

Had they been able to, Jaune Arc would not be here right now.

When it came to Aura, there were only three things that mattered: capacity, control, and Semblance.

Of those three, only control could be reliably improved. Even in cases of extreme ineptitude, the basics of Aura manipulation could be taught in a few years. Meanwhile, increasing a person's Aura capacity was not something that could be reliably done. According to studies done by Atlas, a person's Aura would grow only by about 25% over the first decade of training and usually stop after that.

Semblances were in an even worse position. While there were many theories on the subject, most studies were inconclusive. In the end, it all came down to luck. Some people had Semblances that were naturally suited for combat. Some people had Semblances with limited combat applications. Some people, even among Huntsmen, just never discovered their Semblances. It was rare, but it happened.

That meant sheer Aura capacity was the most attractive trait in a prospective Huntsman. The skill could be taught. The knowledge could be imparted. The Semblance was a roll of the dice. However, the Aura one started with and the Aura one ended with would remain largely the same.

As Rook looked over Jaune's application papers, he could see that Jaune had applied to combat schools in Vale and had been rejected. Had they realized just how much aura he had, they would have accepted him right away.

It was a good thing for Atlas they did not have the technology to do so, Rook realized.

However, Hyades did have those resources.

The Specialist snuck a peek at the other judges. They looked as bored by the fight as he had been a few seconds ago. In time, they would check Jaune Arc's other scores, and they would realize the depths of his Aura. If that happened, Jaune Arc would be accepted into Hyades. He would train and grow like any other student and eventually go to Atlas Academy.

Rook couldn't let that happen.

No visible training and substantial Aura reserves. It was precisely what the guys in R&D were looking for. There was no doubt in his mind. Jaune Arc was the perfect candidate for the project. Rook looked at his scroll. All he needed to do was push a button. Jaune Arc's profile would be sent to his superiors. His admission process would be halted. He would receive an invitation which he would most likely accept out of desperation if his application history was any indication.

Rook once again looked at the small blonde kid getting his ass kicked by a droid. According to his papers, he was fifteen. He looked much younger than that. He probably wasn't even five feet tall.

_Sorry, kid._

Rook pushed the button.

xXx

**Two Years Later**

Under the cover of midnight, a group of White Fang grunts made their way inside an SDC warehouse. Coming here had been a risk, but the tip passed to them by one of their informants had been too juicy to ignore. Indeed, it seemed their daring was being rewarded. The warehouse was full of large crates of Dust. Tomorrow, the shipment was supposed to leave for Mistral. Now, however, all that Dust was right in front of them and ready to be taken.

"Alright," their leader, a large faunus wielding a chainsaw, said. "Start loading the bullhead. We have fifteen minutes before anyone notices we took down security. Once those fifteen minutes are up, we arm the bomb and leave."

While the man many called Banesaw would like nothing more than to take all the Dust in the warehouse, that was just not feasible. Even if they had the time for it, they did not have the resources. The bullhead they brought was too small to load up all the Dust.

Besides, taking the Dust was not the main goal of the mission. Certainly, the Dust would be a welcome boon and help fund their operations. However, the real purpose of this mission was to hurt the SDC. Blowing up all this Dust would make the SDC lose a lot of money. It was not as satisfying as having Jacques Schnee's throat between his hands would be, but every little bit helped.

"How are things going outside?" Banesaw asked as he held up his radio. He blinked under his mask when he received no answer. "Fang 3, this is Fang 1. Respond."

Silence.

Banesaw frowned. He hadn't brought rookies who would be dumb enough to fall asleep on the job or forget their radios. Something wasn't right.

"You and you," he called out, pointing at two of the people working to load up the Dust. "Go find out what happened to our lookouts. Keep your radios on."

The two nodded and moved to follow his orders. Two tense minutes followed as Banesaw waited for their report. Then he heard it. Gunfire.

"Report!" He growled into his radio.

"It's here!" Came the quick reply from the other end. "We've got to leave! It's-"

The signal cut off. Nothing but static remained.

"Forget the Dust!" Banesaw roared. "Arm the bomb. We're getting out right no-"

At that moment, the back door was blown open.

"Shoot!" Never one slow to action, the order left Banesaw's mouth immediately. The grunts took hold of their weapons and unloaded everything they had. Over a minute of loud, continuous gunfire followed. A cloud of dust rose up. Silence followed as they all waited to see if that had been enough.

Footsteps echoed across the warehouse as a lone figure walked out of the smoke.

Banesaw swore. Of all the damn places, for that thing to be here!

It was well over six feet tall. The main body was black but had white, armored plates attached to its legs, chest, and arms, forming greaves, a breastplate, and gauntlets. In some ways, it was reminiscent of a knight of olden days. Its head was round and colored in blue and white. A black visor surrounded by gold took over most of its face, weirdly managing to look like a crown. A gold and white gun was holstered at its side.

"IXA," Banesaw hissed.

Out of all the fucking horrible things created by Atlas' scientists, IXA had to be the fucking worst as far as Banesaw was concerned.

IXA was Atlas' newest toy, the latest in military droid design, and it showed. The IXA unit fought on an entirely different level compared to previous androids. Luckily for the White Fang, only one IXA unit existed. The technology used to make it had not yet reached the mass-production state. Unfortunately, Atlas was entirely willing to lend their one IXA unit to Jacques Schnee in order to protect his precious Dust if it meant a price reduction for them. The hypocrites.

"You are all found to be in breach of Atlas Law. Surrender now, and your sentences may be lessened."

Banesaw felt a shiver go down his spine as he heard that voice. That was another creepy thing about IXA. The droid did not speak with the same robotic voice other droids did. Instead, IXA spoke with a voice that sounded uncomfortably human.

It was damn creepy. However, he couldn't let that stop him.

"Surrender?" Banesaw hoisted up his chainsaw. "I don't think that's going to happen. In fact, I'm going to have to apologize to Adam next time I see him. He was so looking forward to a rematch."

It had honestly been kind of weird to see Adam obsessed with something beyond the White Fang's cause and Blake Belladonna.

"You cannot win," IXA said. The machine raised its gun.

"You underestimate the faunus, machine!" Banesaw roared as he charged in with his chainsaw. IXA's gun fired. Banesaw moved to dodge but realized he didn't have to. The sound of the engines being hit told him why a moment later.

The bullhead!

Banesaw didn't need to turn around to confirm it. He knew IXA had just shot the bullhead. There was no way the others could escape with the Dust now. That stupid machine!

IXA firing at the bullhead allowed Banesaw to get close. The large faunus roared as he slashed down. However, IXA brought his weapon up in time to block. As he did so, the gun seamlessly changed into a sword. Sparks flew as the two weapons clashed. Banesaw's eyes widened behind his mask.

People tended to think he was just a guy who had grabbed a random chainsaw to use as a weapon. That could not be further from the truth. The chainsaw he used was specially made. It wasn't for felling trees. It was for cutting droids in half even without being reinforced by Aura. The people who underestimated his weapon tended to pay the price.

Yet it had just been blocked by a single sword. Not parried. Blocked. Banesaw frowned. Just how much money had Atlas put into this thing?

The large man grunted as he tried to push IXA back. However, no matter how much he strained his muscles, he could not make the armored knight budge. Instead, it was IXA who pushed forward and forced him back. The droid followed with a thrust from his sword. Banesaw barely had time to bring his chainsaw up to parry.

Again and again, their weapons met. With each clash, sparks flew, and Banesaw was forced back yet another step. IXA was wearing him down bit by bit with machine-like efficiency. For a moment, Banesaw wondered why no one was helping him. The question answered itself as IXA came at him with speed he had previously only seen from Adam.

There was absolutely no way a couple of grunts could even get close to this fight. Even trying to shoot at IXA right now was dangerous. It had been one thing when he had just come in through the back door, but now a missed shot would risk igniting the Dust.

"Damn it!" Banesaw yelled as IXA's sword connected with his side. Only his aura saved him, but it was starting to run low. He made a last desperate charge at the robot.

IXA dodged.

The droid's knuckles collided with Banesaw an instant later. The hit hurt, but not unreasonably so. Then Banesaw heard it.

**IXA Knuckle – Rise Up!**

Burning light filled Banesaw's vision, and he knew no more.

xXx

In the depths of a very secret military lab, a real girl greeted her first friend.

"Friend Jaune!"

Jaune braced himself as the flying form of Penny Polendina collided with him the second he entered the lab. Once upon a time, the impact would have been enough to knock him over. Nowadays, he was strong enough to catch the girl in a hug. He still needed to be ready for it, though. Jaune may be taller and broader than Penny, but she weighted way more than any girl her size had a right to. Some girls were made with flesh and blood. Penny was made with metals of varying densities.

Jaune could probably save himself some trouble by pointing this out to Penny, but you didn't go around telling a girl she was heavy. That was just common sense.

"Hi, Penny!" Jaune said, patting her head. "How have you been?"

"Oh, I have been playing chess against the computer for the past few days," Penny said, letting Jaune go. "I have experienced an 80% growth in skill. Although I must say, the computer does not make for particularly good company. It does not make funny faces like you when you lose."

Jaune winced.

He knew Penny didn't mean anything bad with those words. Still, he couldn't help but feel guilty. Jaune was one of the few people that was even allowed to see Penny let alone talk to her. Of those, he was the only one who had gone ahead and told her they were friends.

Penny had been ecstatic when those words left his lips. Since then, Jaune always made sure to make time for Penny. Thankfully, Professor Polendina and General Ironwood saw no issues with letting Penny indulge in normal friend activities. Sure, Jaune couldn't hold a candle to Penny when it came to chess or just about any other game, but that didn't matter because what Penny really enjoyed was spending time with her friend.

Whenever Jaune left on a mission, Penny was left alone.

Unlike him, she couldn't leave the base. Jaune didn't like it. Professor Polendina didn't like it. Heck, even General Ironwood didn't like it. However, they all understood why that was the case. Penny was too important and too unprepared to be allowed in the outside world just yet. It was still not safe. Few things could hurt Penny physically, but that was not the issue.

The issue was that Penny was a teenage girl with the body of an unstoppable machine. She was still learning how to behave in society without standing out too much. Until she did, it was dangerous to let her go out. Jaune understood this.

It still made Jaune feel like a heel whenever he had to leave her for days.

"Tell you what? Once I'm done with my report, we can go play some games." And by play, Jaune meant that Penny would kick his ass in whatever game he chose, and they would have a big laugh about it. Penny was way too good at things she technically wasn't programmed for. Professor Polendina had been ecstatic when he found out how quickly Penny could pick up games. They had spent the whole week testing that out.

Penny's face lit up like the sun. "Truly? That would be sensational, Friend Jaune! Oh, we can have a sleepover!"

Jaune grimaced. "I don't think Professor Polendina would like that." The man could be scarily overprotective of his daughter. "Speaking of, where is he? I am supposed to give my report to him."

"Oh, Father is over there," Penny said, nodding to the side. It was only then that Jaune noticed Professor Polendina had been there the entire time. The short, balding man was hunched over a computer. Now that he was paying attention, Jaune could hear the sound of his fingers hitting the keyboard.

"Father," Penny said. "Jaune is here to see you."

"In a moment sweetie. Daddy is looking at the two Brothers in the eyes and showing them how it is done."

Not once did the man look up. Penny looked at Jaune and gave him what could almost be called a shrug. Jaune sighed. The man never changed. When Professor Polendina was working, the rest of the world might as well not exist.

"Oh, well." Jaune scratched the back of his head. "He's going to be there for a while. I guess we can go play something now if you want."

"Sensational!" Penny brought her hands together in a clap. "Oh! We can play Twister! I have always wanted to play Twister!"

"Never mind! I'm done!" Professor Polendina suddenly jumped off his chair, taking the time to shoot Jaune a warning glare. Jaune rolled his eyes. Seriously, the man was way too overprotective. Jaune didn't even see Penny like that. She was like a little sister to him. Besides, it wasn't like anything could happen. Sure, Penny was a real girl, but she wasn't that anatomically correct.

Was she?

No. Bad brain. Shut up.

"I've already looked over IXA's files, so there is no need for a written report," Professor Polendina said, making Jaune feel annoyed for having already written it. Still, it was for the best. Ironwood would get on his case if he didn't follow regulation. "I should congratulate you on another job well done, but from the start, there was no way mere terrorists could stand up to the might of my IXA."

Professor Polendina laughed. Unfortunately, the man had a notoriously creepy laugh. Jaune had gotten used to it, but he really wished the man didn't sound so much like a mad scientist. Jaune bit his tongue to avoid bringing up that one time a terrorist had come pretty close to wrecking IXA. That had not been a fun day for anyone, except maybe for Adam Taurus.

"All I need is for you to tell me your impression on the upgrades we made to IXA," Professor Polendina told Jaune while pointing at the transformation belt.

An average person would only be able to tell Jaune was wearing a white belt with an unusually large black and gold belt buckle. It didn't mesh well with his white and grey Atlas uniform, but it was far from the weirdest thing a Huntsman-in-training had ever worn. Meanwhile, a Huntsman would be able to spot the signs of a mecha-shift mechanism right away.

Less than fifteen people knew exactly what the belt did.

When Jaune had received a letter from Atlas Academy two years ago requesting a meeting, he had been confused. When he had been told Atlas wanted him to be part of a secret project, he thought they were messing with him. When he had been presented with a suit that looked like a mix between a robot and a medieval knight, well, that had been the coolest thing ever.

"The suit felt lighter than usual." Jaune closed his eyes and did his best to remember the fight with Banesaw. Being IXA was always a rush, but this time, he had felt extra fast. "I felt like I could move more freely than usual. Wearing the suit also didn't tire me out as much."

"Good. Good," Professor Polendina said as he took down some notes.

In many ways, IXA could be said to be Penny's older sibling. It worked as a testbed for much of the technology that had later been put to use in building Penny. However, it was not just that. The IXA suit was, as General Ironwood once told him, the next step in Huntsmen development. When Jaune wore it, all his physical abilities were magnified. The suit also added to the protection already provided by his aura, and its weapons were top of the line.

Mass production was still a long way off. There were many bugs in the suit to be worked out which was why Jaune was needed as the test pilot. Once that was done, the Grimm would not know what hit them. Until then, however, all the public needed to know about IXA was that it was a very advanced robot and nothing more.

"Were there any problems with overheating?" The scientist asked. "According to the data, you stayed in Safe Mode for the entire fight."

Jaune blinked. "Ah, that. No. There were no overheating issues this time. It's just, well, we were surrounded by Dust."

"And?" Professor Polendina prompted.

"And changing to Burst Mode releases a big wave of heat all around me that could have easily ignited the Dust," Jaune explained flatly.

"Eh, you'd have survived a Dust explosion without trouble." Professor Polendina waved a hand as if brushing off something unimportant, and to Professor Polendina, it really was unimportant. He wasn't a bad man. He just had some serious tunnel vision regarding certain things, his creations chief among them.

"That's not what I-" Jaune closed his mouth. "Whatever. Is there any way to make it so I can switch modes without releasing a giant heat wave?"

"Of course, there is!" Professor Polendina scoffed as if he found the very question insulting.

"Then can we-"

"However, that would not look cool at all!"

Jaune's shoulders sagged in defeat. Of course. What else had he been expecting? Penny came equipped with twenty floating swords that shot lasers, and contrary to popular opinion, it had not been Ironwood's idea to put them there. Professor Polendina had done that all on his own. Hell, the guy made IXA an acronym because he thought it was cooler that way, and he had yet to come up with something for it to stand for.

"It is all about the cool factor, you see," Professor Polendina told him as if he was imparting some deep wisdom on him. "There is a perfectly scientific reason for it. When something is cool-"

The explanation was mercifully cut off by multiple beeps from his computer. Professor Polendina moved to check it. "Penny, Jaune, please come here. I believe this call is for you."

Penny and Jaune trade confused glances, but nevertheless, moved to stand beside Professor Polendina. The aged scientist hit a button and a screen popped up. In it, there was a face Jaune knew all too well.

"General Ironwood, sir!" Jaune said, snapping into a perfect salute. By now, the motion was automatic. Winter Schnee had made sure of that.

"At ease, soldier," Ironwood said. Only then did Jaune allow himself to relax. "I had a feeling I would find you here."

"Is it another security mission, sir?" Jaune asked. By security mission, Jaune meant if it would be another mission where he was loaned to the SDC. He did not mind fighting against the White Fang but having to pretend he was a robot when interacting with SDC personal was a bit annoying sometimes.

"Nothing of the sort." Ironwood smiled. "This is a mission of a different kind. A mission for you both."

Both?

Jaune looked at Penny. Penny looked at Jaune.

"General, does that mean…?" Penny pointed at herself, unsure.

"Yes, it does, Penny." Ironwood nodded. His smile grew kinder. "It is finally time for you to go to the outside world."

"I… can go…outside…" The sheer multitude of emotions that passed through Penny's face at that moment was astonishing. She looked at her father. "Father, is it okay? Is it really okay?"

The mix of hope and fear in her face was enough to make Jaune feel like someone had punched him in the gut. It was a reminder of how isolated Penny had been since her creation. He couldn't begin to imagine how Ironwood and Polendina were feeling right now.

"It is okay, Penny," the aged scientist said in a surprisingly gentle tone. His wrinkled face smiled. "Ironwood already talked to me about this. It is time, daughter. You shine too brightly to keep you in this dark, dingy lab."

For a moment, Penny went perfectly still.

"This.. is…SENSATIONAL!" The girl cried as she caught an unprepared Jaune in the mother of all bear hugs. "Did you hear, Friend Jaune? We are going outside! We can shop and order food! Oh, we can go to an arcade! I have always wanted to go to an arcade!"

"…that's… great…" Jaune managed to get out. It was a little hard with Penny squeezing all the oxygen out of his lungs.

"Let the boy breathe, Penny. I need you two to calm down. Remember, this will be a mission," Ironwood's voice cut in. Nevertheless, he sounded amused. Penny let go of Jaune. The two stood ready to receive their orders.

"As you know, the Vytal Tournament will be this year. I want you both to participate."

"We'll be competing as students?" Jaune asked. Technically, he and Penny were both registered as students of Atlas Academy, even if neither one went to class.

"Penny will be participating as a student. I already have a team in mind for her," Ironwood said before his gaze slid over to Jaune. "You will be participating as IXA."

"Is that… is that allowed?" Jaune asked nervously. As far as he knew, the tournament was reserved for students of the four Huntsmen Academies and no one else.

"Usually not. However, I managed to convince the other Kingdoms to make an exception this time. There are many who wish to see how IXA performs against Huntsmen-in-training."

So no pressure or anything. Jaune laughed nervously.

"It should go without saying, but I expect you both to perform your best. It is not an exaggeration to say your victory can have a great impact on the future of humanity."

Jaune's laugh died a slow, awkward death.

"And Jaune?" Jaune barely managed a sound in reply. "Do you remember what I promised you the day we met? After the tournament is over, I believe the time will be right."

Jaune gasped.

Of course, he remembered. How could he forget? Ironwood's promise to him had been one of the main reasons why he agreed to be part of the IXA project. Ironwood had told him that if he showed results and when the time was right, he would make him a Hunstman.

Now, that time was less than a year away.

Jaune Arc was going to become a Hunstman.

"I… Thank you, sir!" Jaune saluted.

"You have more than earned it," Ironwood told him. "I will send the exact details of the mission to your scrolls. For now, rest and prepare."

Once Ironwood cut the transmission, Penny and Jaune looked at each other.

"Penny?"

"Yes, Friend Jaune?"

"We're going to win this."

Penny nodded with a big smile on her face and her fists clenched in front of her. "We are combat ready!"

Damn right, they were.

* * *

**AN: When you think about it, this really didn't need to be a Kamen Rider Crossover. It could have easily been Atlas inventing a random power suit that Jaune uses. That said, I really like the design of IXA. Its colors and Knight motif really work with Jaune. It also looks like something that could come out of Atlas.**

**Since this is a one-shot, I skipped straight to the good stuff with Jaune already having experienced a lot. A hypothetical full version of the story would take its time with things. Jaune being introduced to the project, being trained, getting the suit, meeting Winter, first encounters with the White Fang, meeting Penny and all that stuff. Basically, the story would spend a lot of time in Atlas before moving to Vale. I also think I'd try to use Merlot for this. Gotta have an evil scientist that sends monsters.**

**On a separate note, readers may have noticed Rook says** **15-years-old Jaune is not even 5 feet tall. I like to imagine Jaune as a really late bloomer, this really adorably shrimpy thing that suddenly turns 6-foot something. It amuses me. Speaking of adorable though, writing this gave me new appreciation for how precious Penny is.**

**Last note, Hyades is the name of a sisterhood of nymphs who were daughters of Atlas. Seemed like a good name for a combat school there.**

**Till next time!**


	5. Alcohol is Humanity's Friend

**And the rating goes up. Just in case.**

* * *

**Alcohol is Humanity's Friend**

* * *

Consciousness returned to Blake accompanied by a pounding headache.

She tried to open her eyes but found herself too drowsy to do so. Blake frowned as the smell of alcohol, sweat, and something else hit her nose. The girl turned around in her bed, hoping to escape the smell.

She bumped into something. Someone gasped.

It wasn't her.

Slowly, very slowly, Blake opened her eyes.

Jaune Arc's very wide, very panicked eyes stared right back at her.

Time stopped. The two teenagers froze as their minds struggled to comprehend the situation. For a moment, there was silence, utterly perfect stillness. However, it could not last forever. Time resumed with pulling, pushing, and half-finished sounds that never got the chance to become words. Someone screamed like a little girl. Blake was pretty sure it wasn't her.

At some point during the chaos, Blake realized that not only was Jaune naked but so was she. Jaune seemed to realize it at the same time as she did because his face turned as red as his partner's hair.

"Wait!" Blake said at last. By then, Jaune was on the floor with only a pillow protecting his modesty while Blake was on the bed with her back against the wall, a lone sheet held against her naked chest.

"Wait," she repeated before anything else could happen. She took a deep breath. "Let's calm down and think for a second."

Jaune did, or at least, he stopped moving. He still very much looked like a cornered animal about to run at any second. Regardless, some semblance of peace returning to the room gave Blake the opportunity to take in all the details she hadn't noticed before.

For one, she wasn't in her room back at Beacon. There were no bunk beds anywhere to be found, no rose petals littering the floor, and none of those posters Yang liked to put up. Instead, Blake was in a plain room with one bed and one bathroom, most likely a motel of some kind.

Her body was sweaty and sore in various places.

She and Jaune were naked.

Had she… had they… Blake clenched her eyes shut and reminded herself to breathe.

"What happened?"

Blake was not expecting Jaune to answer, but he did anyway.

"T-There…there was a party, I think," Jaune said. His eyes were looking at everything in the room but Blake. "We all went out to Vale."

With those words, Blake started to remember.

"Right. Yang came up with the idea."

It was the last weekend before the new semester started. Yang and Ruby had gone to Patch for the break but had returned early. Yang wanted to do something special before classes began, so she had talked them into a night out. The blonde claimed she knew all the best places. It had started out as a Team RWBY activity, but Nora had gotten wind of it. She and Yang had started talking, and the rest was history.

"We went to a club." Jaune was holding his head. "There was dancing. I remember dancing. Then we started to drink."

"I remember," Blake said. As it turned out, Jaune was an amazing dancer. He and Yang had somehow gotten into a dance-off which he had won. Yang had taken a shot of whiskey as punishment. "After that…"

After that, things started to get… weird.

Yang did not hold her liquor well. One shot was all it took for her to start slurring her words and giggling at everything and anything. By itself, that wouldn't have been so bad, but somehow, a drunk Yang Xiao Long was more dangerous than a sober one. Blake still didn't know how she had convinced everyone to drink so much, but she had.

In less than an hour, Weiss was in the middle of a spirited conversation with an empty chair, Jaune was challenging anyone who came close to him to any competition he could think of while looking more confident than Blake had ever seen him, and Ruby was grouchy and calling everyone lightweights. Then…

"We were going back to Beacon," Jaune said, snapping his fingers. "We had way too much to drink, so we had to call a cab."

"Right." Blake nodded. The motion made her a bit woozy. "There was not enough room for all of us. We sent Yang, Ren, Nora, and Ruby first."

"Yeah, we had to call another cab just for the two of us. Then… Then…"

_"Thish ish boring!"_

_"I knooows…Heyyy, woushdn't it be hilarioush if we like… you know!"_

_"I knowsh!"_

The slurred words came unbidden to Blake's mind. She couldn't remember who said what, but she couldn't deny they had been said. Judging by Jaune's wide eyes, he was remembering as well. The question. The answer. The sloppy kisses that followed.

Asking the driver to take them to the nearest motel.

"Oh." The tiny sound escaped Blake's mouth. Her faced burned with mortification. Of course, what else had she been expecting? She should have realized it the moment she noticed their nakedness. What else could that smell be?

They had sex.

Jaune looked as lost as she felt. "I… we…it happened, didn't it? I'm not remembering wrong or anything, right?"

Not trusting herself to speak. Blake nodded. To her surprise, Jaune chuckled. It wasn't a happy sound by any means. If anything, it was surprisingly bitter coming from the leader of Team JNPR. "My first time and I don't even remember it… great."

Blake pulled the bedsheet tighter around her body. "It was my first time too."

"Oh."

While many in the White Fang would be surprised to hear it, her relationship with Adam had never quite progressed to that point. At first, it had been because she was too young. Even though Blake had been willing to cross that threshold with him back then, it was Adam, surprisingly, who had pointed out the importance of waiting for the right time.

By the time Blake fully blossomed into a woman, it had been Adam's growing mental instability that kept them apart as their arguments over his methods became more frequent. Simply put, the right time had never come.

Now, she had her first time with Jaune Arc, someone she knew but rarely talked with. Not a friend or a lover, but an acquaintance. It was preferable to what Adam had become, but still not quite what Blake had been expecting.

An oppressing silence fell on the room as both struggled to process what had happened between them.

"I think," Blake said at last, "that we should pretend this didn't happen. It doesn't need to change anything between us. Anything that happened in this room doesn't need to leave it. It is best if we just forget about it."

There. That was the most practical way to settle this. If what they had done got out of this room, things would only get complicated. Yang would tease them mercilessly. Pyrrha would… Blake didn't want to imagine what she would do.

Besides, it wasn't like she and Jaune were about to start a relationship or anything just because something like this happened. It was just a drunken one-night stand, a silly mistake born from too much alcohol. Nothing more. There was no need to let something like this make things awkward. Jaune should be able to understand that. Blake honestly believed that.

Which was why Blake was completely surprised by the pained look that appeared on Jaune's face.

It took her a few seconds to understand his reaction. When Blake did, she wanted to kick herself. Of course. What guy would like to be asked to keep his first time a secret by the girl he just had sex with? It could easily be interpreted as the girl being ashamed of him.

Even a confident person risked getting his ego bruised, and Jaune was very much not a confident man. Blake knew that much about him. He had probably jumped straight into the worst possible interpretation of her words. Blake opened her mouth to try to explain herself better when Jaune spoke up.

"So, anything that happens in this room, we don't talk about it ever again?" Jaune asked. The use of present tense confused Blake, but still, she nodded.

"Then…" Jaune opened and closed his mouth multiple times, struggling to find the right words. "Does that mean we can talk about what happened last night before we leave this room? I mean, if you want to."

Blake didn't want to. However, she didn't want Jaune taking that the wrong way. "I guess."

"Alright, then…" Jaune's face somehow managed to grow redder. "Did you… I mean… Did I…" Jaune took a deep breath before blurting out, "Did you finish?"

Silence.

Completely and utter silence.

Blake stared at Jaune, unable to believe he had just asked that. Jaune looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him whole.

"Nevermind," Jaune said, quickly shaking his head and immediately wincing. His head probably still hurt from all the drinking. In fact, that was likely the reason why he had even been able to ask that question, Blake reasoned. He was probably still drunk. That had to be it. "Forget it. That was dumb. I-"

"I don't remember," Blake said.

She was obviously also not quite in her right state of mind if she felt the need to answer that.

"Oh." Jaune looked down. "I only asked because… I have seven sisters."

Blake stared. This time for entirely different reasons.

"Yeah, that's usually how people react." Jaune sighed. "What I am getting at is that they talk. I mean, of course, they do. They are people. People talk all the time-"

"Jaune," Blake cut in before he could start rambling.

"Right. Sorry," Jaune said. "When I say talk, I mean they talk about female stuff. Not just make-up and clothes, but things like that time of the month and how their dates went. With way too much detail sometimes." Jaune shuddered. "It's not like they did it on purpose. No sister goes out of her way to tell her brother how she and her boyfriend got to second base."

Blake suddenly felt glad she was an only child. It was a welcome distraction from the situation she was in.

"It's just sometimes they didn't notice I was in the room. They would talk for a while before realizing I was there. Sometimes, I just happened to overhear stuff. I have heard my sisters talking about guys they have been… intimate with more times than I can count. It was all very embarrassing. Not as much as this, though."

Jaune tried to smile at Blake then promptly looked down once he remembered a bedsheet was the only thing covering her body.

"Something that came up a lot during their talks was that many of their boyfriends didn't make them… finish. I heard that complaint again and again. Hearing that sort of thing, I thought to myself I didn't want to be a guy like that, someone who only cared about getting his."

"So that's why you wanted to know," Blake said. It was cold comfort, but at least, Jaune looked more mortified than she felt right now. "Like I said, I don't remember much."

Kisses. Passionate caresses. Clothes being torn off in their haste. Things got blurry after that.

"It's fine," Jaune said. "It doesn't matter."

The dejected look on his face made it clear that it was not fine and that it did matter. Blake struggled to find something to say. Even though she had said they should pretend this never happened, she had a feeling that was not going to happen, not with Jaune being the way he was right now. She needed to make this right somehow, or else it would linger between them. She needed to say something.

"We could… try again."

That was not it.

Drunk. She had to be. She was obviously still drunk, Blake told herself as her mind caught up with the words that had left her lips. There was no way she would ever have said something like that if she was still sober. Maybe it was the dehydration kicking in.

"You know, try to make a good memory out of this."

What was she even saying!

She needed to say something, play it off as a joke. This was not even remotely what she had in mind when she thought she had to make things right.

"Okay."

The lone word left Jaune's mouth. It was weak, more of a gasp than anything else. Still, it made its way around the room just fine. Blake heard it. Jaune heard it. They couldn't deny it had been uttered. Suddenly, it became hard to breathe. Suddenly, Blake became more aware of her and Jaune's nakedness. Their eyes, which had struggled to look at everything in the room but each other, finally met.

His body had grown, Blake realized. Under the hoodie and jeans, Jaune was in the process of turning into lean, toned muscle, muscle which was now exposed to her, only a pillow blocking her view of what was truly important.

Blake unconsciously licked her lips, now all too aware of how naked she was, how the bedsheet that in her nervousness she had pulled tightly around her body did little to conceal her figure. Judging by the sudden intensity of Jaune's gaze, he noticed too.

She should put a stop to this, Blake told herself as her grip on the bedsheet weakened. She should explain to Jaune that this was a horrible idea. There was no possible way this could end well. They barely knew each other. Once this day was over, they would look back and realize how stupid they were being. It would make things horribly awkward.

She didn't.

She didn't say anything as Jaune moved closer to her and she moved closer to him. She didn't say anything as the sheet fully slipped from her fingers, revealing her body to him once more. She didn't say anything as their lips met, tentatively at first then with growing confidence.

They did it two more times that day and a few more after showering which led to another shower. That day, Blake found that Ninjas of Love had not been exaggerating the beneficial effects of Aura on a man's ability to perform.

And she did finish.

xXx

The break was over. The new semester had begun.

Jaune was in the middle of Combat Class.

He jumped back as Cardin's mace came down on him. The boy's double-handed mace had a longer reach than Jaune's sword. Jaune could continue dodging by keeping himself out of Cardin's range but doing so put him too far away to land a hit. It was a difficult situation. To hurt Cardin, Jaune needed to get close. If he got close, Cardin would have him in mace range before he had Cardin in sword range.

Pyrrha had impressed on Jaune the importance of managing your effective range in a fight. He understood the concept, but he was still having trouble putting it into practice. That was fine, Pyrrha had told him. These things took time.

Jaune understood that.

Jaune really didn't want to lose to Cardin.

Cardin wasn't the strongest or the weakest in their year. If anything, he and the rest of Team CRDL were firmly in the middle. In theory, there was no shame in losing to Cardin. However, Cardin was an ass, an ass who had blackmailed him and tried to have Pyrrha stung by bees. Jaune was not about to lose to him ever again.

Sure, Jaune knew that Cardin had trained for much longer than he had. Unlike him, Cardin had probably gone to combat school or received training from his family, probably both. The odds favored Cardin. Jaune knew that.

However, Jaune was feeling pretty good about himself right now.

Before Cardin could go for another blow, Jaune dashed in. Predictably, Cardin's mace came at him again. A loud clang rang through the classroom as Cardin's weapon hit his shield. Jaune managed to brace himself in time to properly receive the blow. Usually, this would be the part where Jaune backed away to get some breathing room. However, he was feeling confident. Instead of moving back, Jaune grunted, put his weight into his shield, and  _pushed_.

It worked. Cardin was forced to take a faltering step back. Jaune took another step forward and managed to hit Cardin in the face with his shield. At that moment, something clicked in Jaune's mind.

He was stronger than Cardin.

Not stronger in the sense of being more skilled. Cardin probably still had him beat there. However, Jaune's large aura reserves granted him a considerable amount of physical toughness. He had never tried to leverage that properly against Cardin or anyone else. He had always gone into a clash expecting to lose… because that was the way it had always been.

Jaune narrowed his eyes. For once, he had the advantage, and he wasn't about to lose it. He took another step, closing the distance. His sword came from behind his shield to slash at Cardin's side. The shield came next, forcing Cardin back yet again.

At such a close range, Cardin could not properly swing his weapon. Maybe if he had some time to gather himself, he could turn the tables. However, Jaune kept pushing him. He kept pressing his advantage, never giving Cardin a moment's rest. Shield bash. Shield bash. Stab. Shield bash. Repeat. Jaune never lost the momentum.

With one last blow from his shield, Cardin fell.

The Aura meters showed Cardin's Aura was in the red. Ms. Goodwitch announced Jaune as the victor a second later.

Clapping and cheers followed, most of them from his team, especially Nora, but some came from Team RWBY and some from students who did not care much for Cardin and enjoyed seeing him put in his place. Jaune smiled sheepishly, proud of his success.

With his head held high, he waved back at his team. For an almost imperceptible instant, his eyes met Blake's. He nodded at her.

The nod she gave him back was small, almost minuscule. Someone else would not have caught it.

But it was there, and that made all the difference.

xXx

Blake was not having a good day. She was not even having a good week.

The new semester had started out well enough for her. Blake's lack of formal education had hurt her performance in some classes during her early months at Beacon, but by now, she had more than gotten used to things.

Then she had seen the news.

Dust theft after Dust theft. The police blamed the White Fang, and after what she had seen at the docks, Blake couldn't deny how likely that was anymore. It was no secret that the White Fang stole Dust. They had done so even when she had been a member. However, they had never gone out of their way to target random small shops before. There was no merit to it.

The White Fang normally targeted SDC stores. It hurt the company that most abused the faunus and gave the White Fang the resources to continue their fight. It was a win-win situation.

This new dynamic. The alliance with a human thief like Torchwick. No matter how much Blake thought about it, it didn't make any sense to her. There was no cause to it. It was nothing but pure, rampant theft.

It was beneath them.

A different person might have been able to ignore such things and focus on living her new life, but not Blake Belladonna. The White Fang was her responsibility. Her father had been High Leader, and she had been complicit in its transformation. There was no way she could ignore this.

Blake had started investigating. Every day, she went over the news. She scoured the web for rumors, no matter how insignificant they may seem. She looked at old newspapers, hoping she could find clues. She drew a map of Vale in her notebook and marked the locations of every major Dust theft since the beginning of the year.

Sometimes, she would stare at the map for hours, trying to find a pattern. Her performance in class suffered as a result. Blake was barely getting enough sleep. Some nights, she didn't get any sleep at all. Even so, she would not stop.

There had to be an explanation. There had to be a reason.

Blake closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were tired, and she had a headache. Nowadays, it seemed like she always had a headache. She had caught her teammates trading worried glances when they thought she wasn't looking. Luckily, they hadn't tried to interfere yet. They didn't understand how important this was.

She needed to solve this. She needed to figure it out.

Blake stared at the map. Her nails dug into the table.

Why was she having so much trouble with this?

She had been a member of the White Fang for years! She understood the organization better than most, certainly better than Vale's so far unsuccessful law enforcement. She should be more than capable of solving this.

It was the headache. It had to be. It wasn't letting her think straight! All the stress was messing with her head.

Blake took a deep breath. Maybe she did need some sort of break. When was the last time she felt relaxed?

Blake's eyes widened as a multitude of vivid images came to her mind.

No. The raven-haired girl narrowed her eyes. She did not just think about that. It hadn't happened. It had just been a one-time thing. She hadn't been thinking. It could have ruined everything, and they were lucky no one had noticed anything.

Well, almost no one.

Blake grimaced as she recalled what had happened when she returned to Beacon that day.

xXx

It was already afternoon when Blake returned to Beacon. She and Jaune had taken separate bullhead rides just in case. If someone saw them arrive on the same ride, people might start talking. Such was the nature of Beacon.

Upon arriving, Blake went to the communal showers. She had already cleaned herself up at the motel, but it never hurt to be extra careful. She didn't want to go into her room smelling like sex. Ruby and Weiss might not be able to recognize the smell, but she had a feeling Yang might.

Yang was the last person Blake needed knowing about this. Her teammate would never let her live it down.

After her shower, Blake hadn't gone to her room right away. Instead, she had approached it by the window. She might be clean, but there was no hiding she was wearing yesterday's clothes. She needed to go into the room without being seen, grab some clothes, then pretend she hadn't spent the night outside. She'd need to think of a good cover story, but Blake was confident in her ability to do so.

Blake could see Yang through the window. Fortunately, she was snoring and quite loudly at that. Like a ninja of olden times, the faunus snuck in through the window without making a sound. As she made her way inside, Blake heard water coming from the shower. Someone was using it. No matter. She just needed to grab a change of clothes and-

"Hi, Blake."

Blake totally did not hiss like a cat.

The raven-haired girl looked around for the source of the voice. Yang was still asleep. Whoever was in the shower hadn't come out yet. That left…

"Ruby," Blake said, looking up. The girl was sitting in her precariously balanced bunk bed. Her legs dangled in the air. Ruby did not look like someone who had been out drinking last night. She looked sober and hangover free. Her silver eyes stared right at her.

"Crazy night last night, huh?" Ruby said. Blake went through her words dozens of times before concluding there was no hidden trap there.

"Yes, it was really… something." This was fine, Blake told herself. It was just Ruby. She wouldn't jump to all the worst conclusions like Yang. She wouldn't be annoyingly clever like Weiss. She would just be Ruby. Sweet. Innocent. Ruby.

"So how did things go with Jaune?"

Had Blake been drinking anything, she would have spewed it all over the floor. As it was, she was left making a bunch of nonsense sounds, some of which might have been words.

"I… geh… blah… I… what?"

"You and Jaune," Ruby repeated. "You were going to take the same cab and didn't come back last night. I was worried. I left a message in your scroll."

Blake hadn't taken the time to check her scroll yet.

"Look, Ruby, I don't know what you think happened last night, but we were all fairly drunk. It is normal if you don't remember everything and-"

Ruby rolled eyes. "Blake, I remember everything. I don't get drunk. You want drunk? Look at Yang."

Blake did. Even though they had not been quiet, the blonde showed no signs of waking up.

"Yang could never hold her liquor," Ruby said as if ashamed of the fact. "Not like me. I learned everything Uncle Qrow had to teach me." She looked away. "Well, that and my Semblance helps me burn alcohol pretty fast. It helps me burn through a lot of things. It's why I can eat so many cookies. Alcohol doesn't do much for me unless I want it to."

Blake froze. If Ruby had been sober last night that meant…

"So yeah, I remember everything that happened. You and Jaune were the least drunk of the lot, so I thought it was safe to let you guys share a cab while I took care of the others. You didn't come back last night."

"Nothing happened!" Blake said, her amber eyes wide and full of panic.

"I didn't say that. I thought you had fallen asleep on the cab or something. I was worried!"

"Oh."

Ruby's eyes narrowed. "But now I am thinking something did happen."

"Nothing happened."

"Blake." Ruby's gaze softened. "You and Jaune are my friends. You know that. If anything happened-"

"Nothing happened," Blake insisted.

Ruby gave her a long, searching look before sighing. "Fine."

xXx

That had been one of the most uncomfortable moments in Blake's life.

On the plus side, Ruby had made no attempts to bring up the subject again. She also hadn't told anyone else about it. The only change in Ruby's behavior since that talk were the occasional glances she shot Jaune and her, and even those were becoming less and less common.

Beyond that little hiccup, things had not changed much. She and Jaune had not gotten any closer. Really, there was no reason for them to do so. They just had a one-night stand. Nothing more.

Right. It was just a one-night stand she could barely remember. Then the morning after. That part she did remember. Blake blushed. She still couldn't believe they had actually done all that. However, she couldn't deny the experience had not been bad.

It had been awkward at first, but it had grown to be quite… pleasant. Good, even. She had come out of that motel room feeling completely refreshed. It was as if all her stress had vanished.

It was the exact opposite of what she was feeling now.

No. Blake shook her head. She was not going there. She wasn't even considering it. Whatever had possessed her that night was no more. It had happened once, but never again.

She needed to focus on the task at hand. She had no time for stupid ideas. Time she did not spend working on this was time the White Fang used to accomplish their goals. There could be no excuses. No interruptions. No distractions. If Blake had to go through a couple more nights of minimal sleep, then so be it. She needed to solve this.

Her resolve made, Blake went back to her research.

It told her nothing.

The stress kept building.

xXx

Jaune was on his way back to the dorms when a familiar black ribbon wrapped itself around him. He didn't even have time to yell as he was dragged into an empty classroom. A familiar body pressed itself against him. Soft lips made contact with his. A tongue sought entrance into his mouth. Dazed, he let it.

All too soon, the kiss ended.

"Blake!" Her name left his mouth with awe. Her hair was frazzled. Her eyes were bloodshot. Her appearance spoke of sleepless nights. Even so, she was still one of the most beautiful women Jaune had ever seen.

"I've been thinking," Blake said, her breathing heavy from the kiss. "There is really no reason to keep what happened last time a one-time thing. It could be our secret. Outside nothing changes. We don't talk about it. Here, we can continue where we left off. What do you say?"

Jaune considered this.

Like any healthy teenage boy, he didn't need to consider it for long.

"Okay."

* * *

**AN: There are many RWBY fics that deal with Jaune getting drunk and marrying someone. There are comparatively fewer with drunken one-night stands. Once the idea came, it had to be Jaune and Blake, the best bad decision makers in RWBY.**

**This ended up being surprisingly hard to write. In the real world, teenagers don't need an excuse to teenage. As the writer, however, I'm bound to make things halfway feasible for you guys. I tried to capture that 'my mouth is moving, but I'm in the backseat of my body' feel that you get when you're doing something really stupid but can't stop yourself. Hopefully, it worked.**

**Jaune vs Cardin is there to show the effect the night had on Jaune. Confidence makes a big difference. As an aside, I've always felt fic writers tend to underestimate Jaune's physical stats. The guy is ridiculous for someone who just recently got his Aura. Sure, he needed Pyrrha to put his shield in the right place in the Emerald Forest, but slicing the head of an Ursa that had just trivialized Cardin in one swing was all him.**

**Anyway, on the hypothetical full-length story: Not going to lie, even though I wrote parts of this with my tongue firmly in my cheek (Ruby being the one true successor of the Branwen Drinking Techniques), a full-length story would get dark. Relatively short, but dark. Blake is obsessive enough about the White Fang to make several bad choices, and Jaune is insecure and inexperienced enough to go along with them. That's a very dangerous mix. Blake's obsession with the White Fang would only worsen as the story goes on, and Jaune would find himself wondering if he is really okay with this sort of arrangement, creating conflict between the two.**

**Anyway, till next time!**


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